Only two days into 2025 and the United States has endured three mass violence events that bring the importance of maintaining top levels of security for institutional and commercial facilities and establishing an effective emergency response plan.
The first incident took place in New Orleans, where 14 people were killed and 35 injured when a man drove a truck into a crowd of New Year’s Eve partiers on Bourbon Street in what’s being investigated as a terrorist incident.
One of the events that was affected by the event was a college football playoff game scheduled for later in the day at the Superdome, located a mile away from the attack, where Notre Dame and Georgia were supposed to play. Due to security concerns, officials moved the game to Thursday, Jan. 2, to ensure a safe environment for a game scheduled to be attended by thousands of fans.
While the schools implemented shelter-in-place policies for their teams at their hotels after the attack, the Superdome was placed on lockdown and underwent security sweeps and employees were asked to not arrive for work until advised.
In addition to the game, the New Orleans airport also advised of potential travel delays due to the attack.
Two other violent events also occurred during the early days of the year.
In Las Vegas, a Tesla Cybertruck packed with fireworks and gas canisters blew up in front of a Trump hotel, killing the driver of the truck and injuring seven others in another incident being investigated as a terror attack.
And finally, 10 people were wounded in a mass shooting at a New York City nightclub Wednesday evening when three or four men opened fire on a group of young men. An AP report said the group got off about 30 shots before fleeing in a sedan with out-of-state plates.
The nightclub incident is not being investigated as a terror incident.
Dave Lubach is executive editor of the facility market.
